In 2017 It’s Time to Grow Up –Referees Deserve Respect Too

We can’t stamp out the things we hate about the game until we give referees more respect, or until we stop fetishizing their mistakes. It’s time to grow up. It is too easy for fans to blame their team’s defeat on a dodgy decision – referees are humans and make mistakes, just like soccer players do in every game. When soccer players make mistakes, we criticize them and that’s fair enough: but we don’t hang them out to dry in the same way as we do with referees, and we almost always try to explain why they did what they did, even if it doesn’t excuse them. We do not afford the same respect or understanding to referees when we criticize them